Sorry, it was meant to be a joke. - I was being a facetious troll. If inserted a 'wink' emoji to indicate that I was being a tit, I'd come across as patronising like J8rn0 and that'd be even worse.

Actually, I wholeheartedly agree with you. It's a bit like putting photoshop in the hands of the general public - instead of effecting subtle barely discernible enhancement, the results are often a garish farrago. Aside from the fact that I do like something vaguely resembling dialogue in a film, I find modern Hollywood blockbusters unwatchable with the excessive reliance on CGI which apart from being wholly unconvincing, robs the film of depth, dynamic and all verisimilitude - much like much of the music in the post analogue age. Hollywood being so obsessed with remakes, then it should rediscover some of its pioneering production techniques. No one is about to become the next Cecil B De Mille, as you say, largely due to expense, but it would be nice to see a return to real life action.

As a kid, I loved both Le Mans and Grand Prix (-that was James Garner right?). The makers similarly incorporated real footage of the '79 GP at Silverstone during 'Silver Dream Racer' - problem was, it was shit. If Richie Cunningham had wanted to do the same thing, he would have needed to find a vintage club race, but then nothing stopping them filming on boards from some race reps and employing some racers to swap paint I guess.

Great photo. Seen so many from this era and it still amazes me that they were riding 500cc 2-stroke engines bolted into steel tube frames, utilizing $30.00 steering dampers, treaded tires, skinny little forks (no fork brace) and dual coil spring shocks, not even gas charged. And wearing those leathers from that era. Today's MotoGP leathers weigh about 11 lbs. Leathers from that era weighed around 32 lbs.

Great photo. Seen so many from this era and it still amazes me that they were riding 500cc 2-stroke engines bolted into steel tube frames, utilizing $30.00 steering dampers, treaded tires, skinny little forks (no fork brace) and dual coil spring shocks, not even gas charged. And wearing those leathers from that era. Today's MotoGP leathers weigh about 11 lbs. Leathers from that era weighed around 32 lbs.

Agree, great photo.

That's an XR14 - a remarkable bike. As I understand, it was the combination of four rotary-valve, 125cc engines. Unlike the renowned Ariel square four which had had one cast block of four cylinders the RG500 had four separate cylinders and was deemed cheaper to engineer than a V4. In terms of weight Kesh, Sheene's works bikes had an advantage over their production racer counterparts which ran aluminium and steel to Sheene's magnesium and titanium. I know that the later beautiful XR22 and XR23 1977 iterations weighed as little as 130kg. They had to be nimble because Barry lacked strength in his damaged legs hence the 'bull horn' handlebars to increase leverage. Also, the sprung shocks were replaced by gas shocks in '77 which Sheene purportedly hated. Not that it mattered, Suzuki didn't want to show their hand and the XR23 was mothballed as an insurance policy in case Yamaha started disappearing over the horizon and the sister version the '22 was reserved for the Trans Atlantic Challenges - meaning I saw one race at Mallory. Ridiculously, they let him test it, but not ride it and gave him another XR14 much to his infuriation. Here's what you could have had. I have often thought that this was another reason for his defection to Yamaha.

Nonetheless Barry ensured that he coralled all the factory machines for himself leaving teammates Hennen and Baker with the less competitive production racers. The early versions of the RGV were notoriously unreliable which is why he had a carburetta catch bottle fitted to the underside of the fairing having crashed and broken his wrist in '74. The early versions ran very hot and Suzuki responded by increasing the rad size which Yam were reluctant to do in the interest of aerodynamics. Although the RGV radiators were twice the size this meant the Yamahas would run hotter and lose power.

That's an XR14 - a remarkable bike. As I understand, it was the combination of four rotary-valve, 125cc engines. Unlike the renowned Ariel square four which had had one cast block of four cylinders the RG500 had four separate cylinders and was deemed cheaper to engineer than a V4. In terms of weight Kesh, Sheene's works bikes had an advantage over their production racer counterparts which ran aluminium and steel to Sheene's magnesium and titanium. I know that the later beautiful XR22 and XR23 1977 iterations weighed as little as 130kg. They had to be nimble because Barry lacked strength in his damaged legs hence the 'bull horn' handlebars to increase leverage. Also, the sprung shocks were replaced by gas shocks in '77 which Sheene purportedly hated. Not that it mattered, Suzuki didn't want to show their hand and the XR23 was mothballed as an insurance policy in case Yamaha started disappearing over the horizon and the sister version the '22 was reserved for the Trans Atlantic Challenges - meaning I saw one race at Mallory. Ridiculously, they let him test it, but not ride it and gave him another XR14 much to his infuriation. Here's what you could have had. I have often thought that this was another reason for his defection to Yamaha.

Nonetheless Barry ensured that he coralled all the factory machines for himself leaving teammates Hennen and Baker with the less competitive production racers. The early versions of the RGV were notoriously unreliable which is why he had a carburetta catch bottle fitted to the underside of the fairing having crashed and broken his wrist in '74. The early versions ran very hot and Suzuki responded by increasing the rad size which Yam were reluctant to do in the interest of aerodynamics. Although the RGV radiators were twice the size this meant the Yamahas would run hotter and lose power.

I only started following GP (F1 as it was called then) in "79. Actually kind of amazed to know they were doing tube framed chassis with magnesium and titanium that far back. I do remember when the bikes went from tube frames to various versions of the Delta framed bikes. Christ... the pictures of those hand welded frames in the year-end GP coffee table books were just pure porn - and they were all just aluminium.

What is a carburetta catch bottle? For oil spray if the engine seized??? I know on superbikes one had to have catch bottle for overheated radiator water. I always used a guinea pig water feeder for mine because the feeder mouthpiece was a perfect fit for the surgical tubing connecting to the radiator.

I read somewhere that the late iterations of the Honda 2-strokes weighed about 285 lbs and made 200 (not very usable) hp. Can you imagine that weight to horsepower ratio with today's electronics?

I only started following GP (F1 as it was called then) in "79. Actually kind of amazed to know they were doing tube framed chassis with magnesium and titanium that far back. I do remember when the bikes went from tube frames to various versions of the Delta framed bikes. Christ... the pictures of those hand welded frames in the year-end GP coffee table books were just pure porn - and they were all just aluminium.

"Only" in 1979??? You noob.

Sheene would have been astride the XR27 by then.

I believe that it was the castings/casings and literally the nuts and bolts, whilst the frame was steel tube duplex. The gas shocks would have been aluminium too - but as I said, Barry didn't like them and stuck to what he knew. Like today they required a suspension technician and unless the guy from Kayaba was in attendance 24hrs a day otherwise it simply meant that it was more work for Barry, unnecessary complexity and more to understand.

These things were only designed to last a few races though- three GPs maximum, so very few remain. The ones in my picture belong to the family estate in Australia. According to this article, it was only the fasteners that were magnesium and aluminium - although I know for definite that the crankcases were magnesium, although Barry insisted on trying aluminium because Yamaha ran them and he was convinced it gave them an advantage.

What is a carburetta catch bottle? For oil spray if the engine seized??? I know on superbikes one had to have catch bottle for overheated radiator water. I always used a guinea pig water feeder for mine because the feeder mouthpiece was a perfect fit for the surgical tubing connecting to the radiator.

It was a justifiable precaution, they had side mounted floats back then.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keshav

I read somewhere that the late iterations of the Honda 2-strokes weighed about 285 lbs and made 200 (not very usable) hp. Can you imagine that weight to horsepower ratio with today's electronics?

Again, have a look at the sportrider article. Although the minimum weight was only 100kg you were never going to achieve that. However, the RGV was making 124bhp and weighed in as little as 110kg - unbelievable. If the bike remained in the powerband (9,800 - 11,000rpm), it would snatch forward on the throttle in sixth like an ordinary bike does in first.

Talking of gearing, the other interesting thing that I spotted in that piece is the fact that the XR22 onwards had a cassette gearbox. Prior to that to change any ratio you had to remove the entire engine. Wth the appearance of chicanes to slow down the faster circuits, this became more significant, hence the introduction of the technology. Ironic, given the current rules on fixed gearboxes.

Also very interesting in that piece to read how successful the XR14 was as a customer machine which is one of the reasons the '22 was withheld. It seems that the '14 was well understood and raced very successfully by satellites and privateers alike both nationally and domestically.

Incidentally, somewhere I've got some great show pictures of Bazza's Seeley TR500 and as mentioned earlier, the XR27...(think Sheene v Roberts Siverstone 1979)..but that's another story altogether.

Gino Rea and Danny Webb immediately spring to mind. Gino was born in the same hospital as me in South London, so strictly speaking he isn't a cockney and neither come to that was Barry who was from Holborn - (too far west).

Shakey's from Lambeth I believe - again, hardly within the sound of Bow Bells -
but that'll have to do.